Guild Wars 2

OK, whinge on.

One of my two accounts is getting spammed every 2 or 3 minutes today, irrespective of what character I’m on or where. That’s bad enough, but what really irks me is that every message has one of a couple of URLs in the text [[EDIT: REDACTED NAMES OF SPAMMERS]], that I’ve been seeing intermittently for months now. The spacing strongly suggests that the text is in a DBCS font, but even so – can ANet really not filter messages or track IP to spot these promptly and keep them out? It’s really spoiling my game today.

Whinge off.

Edit: I normally have a fair amount of sympathy with developers and similar roles – I did that sort of job long enough myself to know that it’s not always easy or trivial. But this is annoying.

Have you tried blocking and reporting them? It at least removes the immediate annoyance factor.

Report, Block and remove those URLs cause you are advertising for them.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Guys,

Please don’t put up the names of RMT companies in our forums. As one member pointed out, you’re essentially spreading the word of their business, inadvertently “advertising” for them.

Yes, sorry about that. That was incautious and bad judgement.

I always block and report. But that’s after the event, and my perception is that the same URLs simply keep on coming.

idk i hadnt had a single spammer message me before today. somehow today everything changed.

That’s funny I put up a post asking about the rise of gold sellers two months ago and it got removed and I got infracted for it. This one gets to stay up with a response from Gaile.

/thumbs up for fair and even moderation Anet.
/rolls eyes

I’m confused about the policy change, as well. The last two threads about this subject have remained, and even had ‘Dev’ posts. This subject, like bots, used to be verboten. /shrug

Probably due to their big security breach, they don’t want to make anyone else mad Got enough people going on about how horrible they are, don’t want to alienate anyone else more than likely.

This having been said, gold selling is a big problem. I get spammed all the time and block and report and then they come back and do it again on a different account.

Seems to be getting worse. I’ve been spammed every time I’ve logged on lately.

Gaile,
I am asking the following question just out of curiosity :
Can’t things like this be taken to Court to shut down the site? Fighting it at the source sounds like the most efficiënt option.

(I’m assuming it’s not easily done, otherwise it would have happend, but I’m just wondering how that works)

The V.8759:

Gaile,
I am asking the following question just out of curiosity :
Can’t things like this be taken to Court to shut down the site? Fighting it at the source sounds like the most efficiënt option.

(I’m assuming it’s not easily done, otherwise it would have happend, but I’m just wondering how that works)

It’s a jurisdictional issue. If the gold selling site is in another country that doesn’t have mutual enforcement laws, ArenaNet will have a lot of difficulty establishing standing. Also you don’t sue a site, you sue its owners. These shady sites aren’t exactly registered corporations as far as I know. So you have to find a court with authority over both parties, you have to determine who the parties actually are, and you have to show that a law or contractual rule has been broken and what damages have resulted. Even if all that were possible, pursuing an international prosecution is expensive. Then what if you shut them down? They will create another site that does the same things, as they don’t really care if they’re breaking rules, they’re raking in the money.

I would love it if they could successfully get punitive damages assessed against these sites that parasitically leech off of and often thereby ruin on line games. I’m a lawyer, I always find the rule of law the best way to preserve civilization. I just know it’s not so simple as trotting down to the courthouse and filing a pleading, not in this kind of situation.

So ANet has to attack it from the other end, by making it hard for players to buy gold from third parties and by booting out those players who do it, hopefully hard enough that word spreads that you’ll just lose your account and have wasted that cash you could have spent legitimately on gems to turn into gold.

Bring back the old school ban-xecutions – If Dhuum is not available then Evon Gnashblade can make them walk the plank. This way, we can at least gain some amusement from the cat and mouse game.

/iamthelaw

Major Domo.9250:

Bring back the old school ban-xecutions – If Dhuum is not available then Evon Gnashblade can make them walk the plank. This way, we can at least gain some amusement from the cat and mouse game.

/iamthelaw

No.

I think ArenaNet has said in the past the reason why they don’t do that in GW2 is because in GW1 people would do everything they could to make it happen just to see Dhuum. It ended up with a lot of players being racist and generally abusive, and outright offensive to others just to see a cool animation. It caused more trouble than it was worth.

Actually, the Devs stated they were looking into bring back Dhuum or a Dhuum-like feature.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Ingame-GMs-do-they-exist/page/2#post4574838

Wow they are back in force because even I got one, first one in months. Reported, blocked and continued on.

Thanks for the answer Donari!
I should have tought of that, sounds like a logical explanation indeed

Just an idea here. What if we made it impossible for someone to PM another player unless that recipient player already has you on their Friend list? (Or, for a less harsh version, sending such messages will cost you a small amount of coin, like 1 silver.) In either approach, it would stop cold spamming in its tracks because the vast majority of gold spammer bots these days are clearly throwaway accounts that were created for that purpose, meaning that nobody would have them on their FL. And in the second approach, given that the bots must spam a ridiculous number of people each day, spending 1 silver each time would rapidly add up and eat into the gold they have to sell. They’re not going to continue doing something that’s basically destroying their profits every time they do it.

I don’t think such changes would impact real players too much. In my experience, people who take things directly to PMs tend to be players with an axe to grind in PvP. And personally, them not being able to PM me is only a positive. If you need to make contact with someone new, there’s always /say or /map chat.

Sigh

If only something was done like a few of us have suggested here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Privacy-Discussion-merged/first

Then maybe this wouldn’t be an issue any longer for some of us…….

However, sadly I fear anyone else trying to add to that post/discussion would probably get labelled a Necro poster for bringing back a dead post/topic because you know, it’s been a while anyone posted on that thread. Is there any actual stated time when a post is considered “necro’ed” and instantly closed even if the topic may be still relevant? Or is it just simply a case of the mods being sick of seeing the same topic too many times?

I am not meaning any offense to any mods here or anything because I think you do an awesome job, just genuinely curious is all.

The V.8759:

Gaile,
I am asking the following question just out of curiosity :
Can’t things like this be taken to Court to shut down the site? Fighting it at the source sounds like the most efficiënt option.

(I’m assuming it’s not easily done, otherwise it would have happend, but I’m just wondering how that works)

the most famous gold sellers move to china because china gets paid so they dont care who gets scammed.

sophiewhite.3149:

The V.8759:

Gaile,
I am asking the following question just out of curiosity :
Can’t things like this be taken to Court to shut down the site? Fighting it at the source sounds like the most efficiënt option.

(I’m assuming it’s not easily done, otherwise it would have happend, but I’m just wondering how that works)

the most famous gold sellers move to china because china gets paid so they dont care who gets scammed.

Not only that even their government gets accused of hacking into business’s and such of other nations. So you would imagine they may even hire people to do so.

Yeah where did all the spammers come all of a sudden. Im blocking multiple ones every day the past few days. Was there a discount and scammers bought hundreds of copies or what? This is getting out of hands. Infuriating.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Keep in mind, as others point out, malicious companies who find they are blocked often just create new names, so containing them can be a bit of a case of “whack-a-mole.” Still, we do take this seriously, and we act on RMT spammers every day. With your help, we can do more!

I’ve got a huge blocklist of RMT spam-bots and I can safely say that you’ve banned them all.

However, while you say that they pick a new name, every single whisper I’ve had since 2012 has been for the SAME WEBSITE. It’s the one that rhymes with GvG Rank. You could have blocked that string of characters ages ago. It’ll cost a heck of a lot more for them to get a new domain name and update all their bots than for you to simply add their domain into your filters. Simply discard any whispers they send and put up a flag (or temporary ban after multiple discarded whispers) on their account. Don’t inform them they’ve used blocked words.

Paulytnz.7619:

sophiewhite.3149:

The V.8759:

Gaile,
I am asking the following question just out of curiosity :
Can’t things like this be taken to Court to shut down the site? Fighting it at the source sounds like the most efficiënt option.

(I’m assuming it’s not easily done, otherwise it would have happend, but I’m just wondering how that works)

the most famous gold sellers move to china because china gets paid so they dont care who gets scammed.

Not only that even their government gets accused of hacking into business’s and such of other nations. So you would imagine they may even hire people to do so.

Seems kinda racist, without any data to back that up. Could just as easily be US personnel operating on US soil. And are we forgetting all the bad stuff the NSA, CIA and FBI does? Probably best not to try and attribute any of this to a particular country.

General Health.9678:

Paulytnz.7619:

sophiewhite.3149:

The V.8759:

Gaile,
I am asking the following question just out of curiosity :
Can’t things like this be taken to Court to shut down the site? Fighting it at the source sounds like the most efficiënt option.

(I’m assuming it’s not easily done, otherwise it would have happend, but I’m just wondering how that works)

the most famous gold sellers move to china because china gets paid so they dont care who gets scammed.

Not only that even their government gets accused of hacking into business’s and such of other nations. So you would imagine they may even hire people to do so.

Seems kinda racist, without any data to back that up. Could just as easily be US personnel operating on US soil. And are we forgetting all the bad stuff the NSA, CIA and FBI does? Probably best not to try and attribute any of this to a particular country.

Hey it’s not me making the claims, you only need to search in google and you see certain governments/organisations blaming others for these things. I was not really pointing my finger at any certain country as such. But the point remains, if governments (and this could be any government) have a hand in this sort of behaviour towards other nations businesses it’s not likely you can stop it legally.

You best protection is prevention.

For some reason I am even getting gold seller messages on my ~100 AP secondary accounts from heart of the mists people with 17 AP. No idea how they even get my account names.

I do block and report, but it really does get annoying when I get 5 messages from 5 different randomly generated names all saying the exact same message within 7 minutes of each other.

Peura.3796:

Yeah where did all the spammers come all of a sudden. Im blocking multiple ones every day the past few days. Was there a discount and scammers bought hundreds of copies or what? This is getting out of hands. Infuriating.

That’s an easy question. Because of the LS release. Influx of players makes it more of a target rich environment that gold sellers are willing to use their leveled up/stolen/fraudulently bought accounts on, which will get deleted assuming players are reporting them as they spam, so we end up seeing more of them.

Don’t think LS is the reason? Looking at the UK PC games sales for last week, HoT is back on the list at 19.

The Last Hobbit.6492:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Keep in mind, as others point out, malicious companies who find they are blocked often just create new names, so containing them can be a bit of a case of “whack-a-mole.” Still, we do take this seriously, and we act on RMT spammers every day. With your help, we can do more!

I’ve got a huge blocklist of RMT spam-bots and I can safely say that you’ve banned them all.

However, while you say that they pick a new name, every single whisper I’ve had since 2012 has been for the SAME WEBSITE. It’s the one that rhymes with GvG Rank. You could have blocked that string of characters ages ago. It’ll cost a heck of a lot more for them to get a new domain name and update all their bots than for you to simply add their domain into your filters. Simply discard any whispers they send and put up a flag (or temporary ban after multiple discarded whispers) on their account. Don’t inform them they’ve used blocked words.

Then they’ll start to bypass the filter. Instead of Google.com, they’ll put G00gle.com. then just Google. Then G00gle. Then G00g1e. Then G o o g l e.

Filters will never be perfect.

The only way gold sellers will stop is if they run out of customers.

heres a solution, raise your gem to gold ratios, even the big sites have 2-3 times the exchange rate
i would buy from them if not the the risk of gold being taken by anet
and i dont mind changing gem to gold if not for the super low rate in comparison

Fishae.2503:

heres a solution, raise your gem to gold ratios, even the big sites have 2-3 times the exchange rate
i would buy from them if not the the risk of gold being taken by anet
and i dont mind changing gem to gold if not for the super low rate in comparison

Anet doesn’t influence the exchange rate, players do. When players exchange gold for gems, the value of gems increases. It has been increasing overall since the game launched, gems are worth many times more than they were in the beginning.

Seera.5916:

The Last Hobbit.6492:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Keep in mind, as others point out, malicious companies who find they are blocked often just create new names, so containing them can be a bit of a case of “whack-a-mole.” Still, we do take this seriously, and we act on RMT spammers every day. With your help, we can do more!

I’ve got a huge blocklist of RMT spam-bots and I can safely say that you’ve banned them all.

However, while you say that they pick a new name, every single whisper I’ve had since 2012 has been for the SAME WEBSITE. It’s the one that rhymes with GvG Rank. You could have blocked that string of characters ages ago. It’ll cost a heck of a lot more for them to get a new domain name and update all their bots than for you to simply add their domain into your filters. Simply discard any whispers they send and put up a flag (or temporary ban after multiple discarded whispers) on their account. Don’t inform them they’ve used blocked words.

Then they’ll start to bypass the filter. Instead of Google.com, they’ll put G00gle.com. then just Google. Then G00gle. Then G00g1e. Then G o o g l e.

Filters will never be perfect.

The only way gold sellers will stop is if they run out of customers.

This has happened with the gold selling spammers in Path of Exile. The amusing thing is that it has gotten to the point where the spammers’ messages are so obscure that you would have to spend a bit of time to decipher what it says.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Guys,

Please don’t put up the names of RMT companies in our forums. As one member pointed out, you’re essentially spreading the word of their business, inadvertently “advertising” for them.

Report them in the game. I guarantee that many are addressed every day, and I’ll talk with CS on Monday to see if there are ways we could improve the filters.

Keep in mind, as others point out, malicious companies who find they are blocked often just create new names, so containing them can be a bit of a case of “whack-a-mole.” Still, we do take this seriously, and we act on RMT spammers every day. With your help, we can do more!

Why doesn’t ANet just give us the ability to create local chat filters? RegEx and perhaps an easy mode that uses one with wildcard support that can be used to filter out messages we don’t want to see. Perhaps it could be a flat text config file and if the UI team wanted to get fancy, they could create an in-game filter editor. Then if there’s a spot in the forums for it, people could post their filters and the users can create and/or cut and paste what they want into their own local chat filters. If there is an in-game UI for the chat filters, you could have a menu of “official” and “player” submitted chat filters that we could click a checkbox to subscribe to.

CedarDog.9723:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Guys,

Please don’t put up the names of RMT companies in our forums. As one member pointed out, you’re essentially spreading the word of their business, inadvertently “advertising” for them.

Report them in the game. I guarantee that many are addressed every day, and I’ll talk with CS on Monday to see if there are ways we could improve the filters.

Keep in mind, as others point out, malicious companies who find they are blocked often just create new names, so containing them can be a bit of a case of “whack-a-mole.” Still, we do take this seriously, and we act on RMT spammers every day. With your help, we can do more!

Why doesn’t ANet just give us the ability to create local chat filters? RegEx and perhaps an easy mode that uses one with wildcard support that can be used to filter out messages we don’t want to see. Perhaps it could be a flat text config file and if the UI team wanted to get fancy, they could create an in-game filter editor. Then if there’s a spot in the forums for it, people could post their filters and the users can create and/or cut and paste what they want into their own local chat filters. If there is an in-game UI for the chat filters, you could have a menu of “official” and “player” submitted chat filters that we could click a checkbox to subscribe to.

Since the gold sellers have paid for accounts, even if stolen, couldn’t they have an account subscribed to it also to see what is blocked and how to get around the filters? If it’s on the forum, couldn’t they just read it to do the same. Couldn’t they add false information if it benefited them in some way? I don’t think this would work as well as you think it would.

The Last Hobbit.6492:

Gaile Gray.6029:

…!

I’ve got a huge blocklist of RMT spam-bots and I can safely say that you’ve banned them all.

However, while you say that they pick a new name, every single whisper I’ve had since 2012 has been for the SAME WEBSITE. It’s the one that rhymes with GvG Rank. You could have blocked that string of characters ages ago.

THIS…. I have a hard time believing they really do crack down on these guys, cuz ive gotten the SAME message from the SAME website spelled EXACTLY the SAME, for the last 4 YEARS. Its almost like they have a backroom deal to get a cut of or something… you cant sit there with a straight face and tell me they couldnt block this crap with any type of filtering or what have you. The same thing happens…. Xhdsfakdjf sends me a message, i block and report, then Dksjdh pops up 2 mins later sending me a message… using the same spelling and url address as they did 4 years ago, with the same hastily typed keyboard smashed names.

Khisanth.2948:

This has happened with the gold selling spammers in Path of Exile. The amusing thing is that it has gotten to the point where the spammers’ messages are so obscure that you would have to spend a bit of time to decipher what it says.

That’s exactly the point I’ve been trying to make and something I’ve seen in other games.

Right now we get a neat, clear and blatant advert from the bad guys (I don’t even know how to format a message like that!). With not very much effort on a filter that message will evolve in to a messy stream of characters and TXT speak that requires some effort to decipher. A less clear message means fewer customers for them. And it would show us players that Anet are at least trying to stop it.

I’ve sometimes wondered whether a community-managed filter would work. Anyone can modify it and the changes get voted up or down. Players can opt-in or out of the filter.

I’ve also wondered why software can’t be batter at deciphering disguised urls and adverts. We have software that can understand natural speech, recognise faces, drive cars and beat a Go master yet it apparently can’t spot that “(dot)” or “\/\/\/\/\/\/” might be part of a URL. I reckon someone needs to offer a research prize for it…

JaddynnStarr.5201:

The Last Hobbit.6492:

Gaile Gray.6029:

…!

I’ve got a huge blocklist of RMT spam-bots and I can safely say that you’ve banned them all.

However, while you say that they pick a new name, every single whisper I’ve had since 2012 has been for the SAME WEBSITE. It’s the one that rhymes with GvG Rank. You could have blocked that string of characters ages ago.

THIS…. I have a hard time believing they really do crack down on these guys, cuz ive gotten the SAME message from the SAME website spelled EXACTLY the SAME, for the last 4 YEARS. Its almost like they have a backroom deal to get a cut of or something… you cant sit there with a straight face and tell me they couldnt block this crap with any type of filtering or what have you. The same thing happens…. Xhdsfakdjf sends me a message, i block and report, then Dksjdh pops up 2 mins later sending me a message… using the same spelling and url address as they did 4 years ago, with the same hastily typed keyboard smashed names.

They put that string in a filter list and they’ll change the message and bypass the filter.

Nothing ANet does will prevent gold seller spam. The only thing that will is running out of customers.

tolunart.2095:

Fishae.2503:

heres a solution, raise your gem to gold ratios, even the big sites have 2-3 times the exchange rate
i would buy from them if not the the risk of gold being taken by anet
and i dont mind changing gem to gold if not for the super low rate in comparison

Anet doesn’t influence the exchange rate, players do. When players exchange gold for gems, the value of gems increases. It has been increasing overall since the game launched, gems are worth many times more than they were in the beginning.

so they say, but w/e algorithm they using ends up giving rates up to 5 times lower than gold sellers

Think its out of hand in GW2? Go sit in LA, Kamadan, or the Shing Jea Monastery for a few minutes. They use the WTS feature to advertise!

General Health.9678:

Paulytnz.7619:

sophiewhite.3149:

The V.8759:

Gaile,
I am asking the following question just out of curiosity :
Can’t things like this be taken to Court to shut down the site? Fighting it at the source sounds like the most efficiënt option.

(I’m assuming it’s not easily done, otherwise it would have happend, but I’m just wondering how that works)

the most famous gold sellers move to china because china gets paid so they dont care who gets scammed.

Not only that even their government gets accused of hacking into business’s and such of other nations. So you would imagine they may even hire people to do so.

Seems kinda racist, without any data to back that up. Could just as easily be US personnel operating on US soil. And are we forgetting all the bad stuff the NSA, CIA and FBI does? Probably best not to try and attribute any of this to a particular country.

there was a short documentary i watched on gold sellers in china. they interviewed one who said thats why he moved there. because china doesnt mind. everyone big in the business moved there to avoid prosecution. and china isnt a race.edit: because society today loves calling people racist ill clarify. i do not dislike the chinese. i dislike the gold sellers. who are most often not chinese but live in china most of the time. sure sometimes they live in other countrys but china is the main one.

Fishae.2503:

so they say, but w/e algorithm they using ends up giving rates up to 5 times lower than gold sellers

Wow, and the gold sellers steal your cc and account, too, what a bargain!

GIVE US USER CONTROLLED CHAT FILTERS!! We can react faster to the chat spam and filter it for ourselves. Having to rely on the report/block does not prevent the spam from inundating us. It takes time for the reports to be acted on and it only removes the player/account doing it, it doesn’t stop the same message from popping up from another three minutes later that we then have to wait for the reporting to be acted on.

Give us our own filter.

sophiewhite.3149:

and china isnt a race

No, it’s a country. However Han Chinese is a race and 92% of China’s population; what I would imagine most people think of when they hear someone described as Chinese. I think it’s possibly time to drop that part of the discussion though so’s not to prevent derailing the thread or something being said that will get it locked ¬_¬

But yeah I agree with Seera’s point that a filter would just be bypassed by them as -shock horror- they’ll have access to it and immediately find a work-around. At least with the ads being blatant and the punishment for RMTing being well advertised, if you fall for the bait you get what you deserve with no excuses. Also it’s much less punishing on the eyes than having leetspeak spammed in chat to bypass a filter…

Seera.5916:

JaddynnStarr.5201:

The Last Hobbit.6492:

Gaile Gray.6029:

…!

I’ve got a huge blocklist of RMT spam-bots and I can safely say that you’ve banned them all.

However, while you say that they pick a new name, every single whisper I’ve had since 2012 has been for the SAME WEBSITE. It’s the one that rhymes with GvG Rank. You could have blocked that string of characters ages ago.

THIS…. I have a hard time believing they really do crack down on these guys, cuz ive gotten the SAME message from the SAME website spelled EXACTLY the SAME, for the last 4 YEARS. Its almost like they have a backroom deal to get a cut of or something… you cant sit there with a straight face and tell me they couldnt block this crap with any type of filtering or what have you. The same thing happens…. Xhdsfakdjf sends me a message, i block and report, then Dksjdh pops up 2 mins later sending me a message… using the same spelling and url address as they did 4 years ago, with the same hastily typed keyboard smashed names.

They put that string in a filter list and they’ll change the message and bypass the filter.

Nothing ANet does will prevent gold seller spam. The only thing that will is running out of customers.

So what is your answer then? just do nothing? Seems to have worked the last 4 years hasn’kitten Giving up cuz its a daunting task is not the answer either. Give us these 2 options. One, give us a button to reject any whispers from people not on our friends list. You don’t HAVE to use it, but the option is there for temporary relief at the least. TWO, our own chat filters would be a dang good option, as the sellers couldn’t possibly combat the millions of individual combinations of strings we can use.

Another option for the block button is maybe to use pop up announcements when you get a whisper. Here’s how it would work. you enable the block feature to keep anyone not on your friends list from sending you a whisper. Then whenever someone sends you a whisper that’s not on your list, a pop up or some other notification would ask you if you want to receive messages from <name>. If its someone you recognize, click yes, if its not, click no. to keep it from happening over and over again, put a check mark in the box to not receive notifications from this user again.

Bellatrixa.3546:

sophiewhite.3149:

and china isnt a race

No, it’s a country. However Han Chinese is a race and 92% of China’s population; what I would imagine most people think of when they hear someone described as Chinese. I think it’s possibly time to drop that part of the discussion though so’s not to prevent derailing the thread or something being said that will get it locked ¬_¬

But yeah I agree with Seera’s point that a filter would just be bypassed by them as -shock horror- they’ll have access to it and immediately find a work-around. At least with the ads being blatant and the punishment for RMTing being well advertised, if you fall for the bait you get what you deserve with no excuses. Also it’s much less punishing on the eyes than having leetspeak spammed in chat to bypass a filter…

I think you are missing the point here, theres a difference between china and chinese. Unless he/she used the word chinaman etc… I did not see that in their post. nothing said was indicating race, only the conglomerate of a country as a whole. Race is not an issue here. If one says “things are cheaper in china” one does not infer that a race is whats being discussed in the comment. To do so shows extreme oversensitivity I think. I do agree with you that the race discussion needs to stop, as it should have never been brought up in the first place.

tolunart.2095:

Fishae.2503:

so they say, but w/e algorithm they using ends up giving rates up to 5 times lower than gold sellers

Wow, and the gold sellers steal your cc and account, too, what a bargain!

use paypal, and if your are dumb enough to give out your acct info to a random 3rd party, well maybe living and breathing isnt for you, in case you give out your credit card pin

every other game where theres some sort of premium for ingame currency trading dictated by players, the prices are never far off gold sellers prices, so theres little incentive to go to them, but gw2… i want to buy gold, but the rate comparison is extremely off putting

its annoying somtimes 5 times on a day these gold sellers i feel like reporting them doesnt help anything just like world of warcraft ppl report them but they keep coming gold sellers

Fishae.2503:

tolunart.2095:

Fishae.2503:

so they say, but w/e algorithm they using ends up giving rates up to 5 times lower than gold sellers

Wow, and the gold sellers steal your cc and account, too, what a bargain!

use paypal, and if your are dumb enough to give out your acct info to a random 3rd party, well maybe living and breathing isnt for you, in case you give out your credit card pin

every other game where theres some sort of premium for ingame currency trading dictated by players, the prices are never far off gold sellers prices, so theres little incentive to go to them, but gw2… i want to buy gold, but the rate comparison is extremely off putting

Should you really be discussing a penchant for perusing gold seller prices here? I mean, I had no idea the rate was so different, because I’d rather take a sledgehammer to my computer than visit a gold seller’s virus-laden site. Nor do I consider it a good idea to buy gold illegitimately at any rate. If I could get enough gold for a permanent hair kit for 5 cents paid to a gold seller, I wouldn’t do it.

It’s like I used to tell my clients charged with shoplifting: “If I see a hundred dollar bill on someone else’s desk, it’s just a green piece of paper to me, because it isn’t mine.”

Actually gold sellers in most games continue to exist precisely because they do deliver what they promise. I’m not even sure they are breaking any laws although they are certainly breaking the terms of use of the game as are the players who buy from them. Both buyer and seller deserve to be perma-banned.

But I still don’t understand why Anet have not bothered to implement even the simplest of chat filters. Make the bad guys work a bit harder for their money.

Fishae.2503:

every other game where theres some sort of premium for ingame currency trading dictated by players, the prices are never far off gold sellers prices, so theres little incentive to go to them, but gw2… i want to buy gold, but the rate comparison is extremely off putting

That’s because the market rate is automated, not controlled by Anet. There would be much worse problems in the game if they set the rates.

The claims that Anet “does nothing” are false. I’ve read the Support forum for years and there has been a constant stream of “my account was falsely banned for gold-selling, please reconsider” messages. They used to post a brief response to each ticket # – sometimes it was legit, someone got banned by mistake for sending a friend a few hundred gold to finish a Legendary or something, and the ban was overturned after a review.

But often the messages were posted by gold sellers who didn’t want to abandon the account and start over, and the response was “ban is legit, and will stand.” You can see by the ticket #s that only a tiny percentage of tickets received were disputed or otherwise mentioned in the forums, so for every ban mentioned there hundreds if not thousands of others were undisputed or upheld without being posted.

Clearing out these accounts are expensive for Anet – customer support costs money, the manpower used tracking and banning them costs money, chargebacks from accounts and gems bought with stolen accounts cost money, and players who buy from gold sellers cost money in lost revenue. So it is within Anet’s best interest to use the most effective methods to control them. If any of these suggestions had already been considered and were better than current methods – and these suggestions are either basic common sense or have been tried in the past – then they would be in use by now.